Sunday, June 1, 2008

Movie Guns IX

As promised, here is this week's movie guns post on Blood Diamond. This movie had some very accurate gunplay as far as realism goes, and Leonardo DiCaprio handles himself quite well. There is no shortage of interesting weapons in this film, with a great deal of them being some sort of AK varient. There are some H&K G3's, M16 A1's, an RPK, as well as an FN FAL or two, but I didn't capture a picture of them as there were no good ones.

I did, however, catch some pictures of some uncommon weapons in the US like this Sterling L2A3 / Mk.4:

And this revolver of unknown make:

At the beginning of the movie, Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) stepps out of a plane with a Glock 26 sporting a Pierce Grip extension, extended slide release, and riding in a leather small of the back holster. I'm a big fan of the Glock 26 in this configuration, although I'm not into the SOB holsters as my back is already jacked up.

He unloads the Glock before handing it over to a RUF Catain with a Smith & Wesson 686:

Archer also carries this black tanto folder of uknown make. It's not a Smith & Wesson, Emerson, Cold Steel, Kershaw, Gerber, SOG, Boker, KABAR, or many others that I have looked up. It's not an auto, and the giveaway is the serations.

Archer later acquires an H&K USP Compact 9mm to replace the Glock 26 that he gave to the RUF Captain. He uses it to get out of trouble more than once, and quite believeably so. Here it is in a nylon holster:

Here it is being aimed out of the window of an SUV. I thought this was a cool picture with the USP's reflection in the window:

And here is Archer gunning down his former Colonel who is wielding a fullsize H&K USP:

Here is the muzzle of a FN High Power that a RUF Captain is pointing at Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou). Earlier he had a 1911, but I couldn't get a good picture.

Some of the bigger weapons seen in this film are general purpose machine guns like this DShKM 12.7 (.50 caliber) Heavy Machine Gun mounted in the truck. Interesting to see all of the AK toting RUF guys so close to the muzzle of this weapon. They would definitely need earplugs if this thing was firing live rounds.

Here is one of the many RPG-7's that is used in the movie:

Toward the end of the movie, Archer, who is a former mercenary, quietly kills a sentry at night with his knife and takes his AK-47. He uses the AK very effectively during a big firefight by firing it on semi-auto with well aimed shots:

Both eyes are open and he is looking over the sights.

The last picture I have is of Archer holding a Colt Commando with a light, Aimpoint scope, and custom paint job. He flinches every time he fires it, and at one point activates the light:

When Archer takes the Colt off of the body of a mecenary that he had just killed, he takes a few extra magazines for it and his USP. That attention to detail doesn't normally happen in films.

This is a great movie with a lot of action. The content is rather upsetting, but the gunplay is realstic. Somehow I can't see DiCaprio being a gun guy, but he pulls it off in this film.

Enjoy.

Update: Commentor Taylor notes that the unknown revolver is actually a French MLE 73. Thanks for finding that one. My weak spot is definitely revolvers.